Writing Contest That's Legit

For the third year, The Writing Show is holding a contest for first chapters of novels. See all the information about this year's version, prizes and rules as well as the results for 2006 and 2007. I was a judge during the launch year, and I know the website owner. This one is not a scam, and it has a low entry fee.

First Prize

* $1000
* An interview on The Writing Show
* Chapter posted on The Writing Show Web site

Second Prize

* $400
* Chapter posted on The Writing Show Web site.

Third Prize

* $300
* Chapter posted on The Writing Show Web site.

Fourth Prize

* $200
* Chapter posted on The Writing Show Web site.

Fifth Prize

* $100
* Chapter posted on The Writing Show Web site.

Plus, for 10 lucky winners, chosen at random

* 750 words of feedback

The early deadline is May 20, final deadline, June 20. Please read all the rules carefully, and if you have any questions still unanswered, only then do I recommend emailing them to "Paula at writingshow.com". Most often people ask, "If they post my chapter on their website, does that count as published?" and "Do they take the rights?" Ask Paula, but here's my take: of course you must grant the right for the entry to be published on the website. Technically that one chapter is published, but only if it is a contest winner (a plus in the eyes of an agent or traditional publisher). In the final count, whether or not it counts as "previously published" is determined by the purchaser of your manuscript.

Superprize for Writing Novels

This year the bookish people who run the Man Booker prize will celebrate the award's 40th anniversary with a The Best of the Booker award to "honour the best overall novel to have won the prize since it was first awarded on 22 April 1969." The same type of award was given on the organization's 25th anniversary, but this time the public will be able to help choose from a shortlist of six chosen by a panel from the 41 contenders. The regular Booker prize is 50,000 pounds. The winner of the Best Booker only gets a trophy, I guess because the author already got the loot the first time around.

According to The Times online, bookies give authors these odds of winning:

• 4-1 Yann Martel – The Life of Pi (2002)

• 5-1 Salman Rushdie – Midnight's Children (1981)
  

• 7-1 Michael Ondaatje – The English Patient (1992)

• 8-1 Ben Okri – The Famished Road (1991); Arundhati Roy – The God of Small Things (1997); Ian McEwan – Amsterdam (1998)

• 10-1 J. M. Coetzee – Disgrace (1999); Anne Enright – The Gathering (2007)

If nothing else, this probably makes a good reading list for aspiring novelists.

$100,000 for Poetry

The New York Times announced this morning that Brooklyn poet Tom Sleigh won the $100,000 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for his seventh poetry collection Space Walk, published last year by Houghton Mifflin. Sleigh is a creative writing teacher at Hunter College. The award is administered by Claremont Graduate University in California. It was established in 1992 in honor of the poet Kingsley Tufts.

Vote for AWE for WD 101

Please help us join Writer's Digest's "101 Best Sites for Writers". Vote by sending an email to writersdig@fwpubs.com with "www.writers-edge.info" in the body of the email. You could also add "A Writer's Edge" if you want, but that's not necessary. Make sure the subject line reads "101 Sites". The management thanks you deeply!

P&E Readers Poll Results

I don't know whether to Woo! Hoo! or Boo! Hoo! A Writer's Edge tied for 14th place out of 18 writers' resource websites in this year's poll at Preditors & Editors (see Writer Resource Results for what I mean). I'm happy, because I didn't know about the competition until this year, and got off to a feeble, late start campaigning. Thank you, thank you all who voted for us! Next year, I hope I can remember that voting begins on the first of January. Then perhaps we, too, can win the coveted first place badge, which went to a website equally unknown to me: Latinidad, actually a newsletter distributed through a Yahoo! Group.

Preditors & Editors Poll

The annual Preditors & Editors Readers Poll is happening until January 15th. You can write in a vote for A Writer's Edge by clicking on the link below:


An email to finalize your vote will be sent when you submit the form. Please add predpoll_noreply@critique.org to your approved senders list to receive the email. Because you may only vote once in each category, a subsequent vote in the same category will override your prior vote. A Writer's Edge qualifies as a "Writers' Resource/Information/News Source".

The management thanks you!

AWE's a Winner!

Remember that funny list of nine words and one phrase I posted about last month? It was for a contest sponsored by Answers.com, the nice people who provide meanings for words underlined in red here. I didn't half try to throw the words listed into a coherent sentence (the contest called for 750 words or less), and yet I'm honored that they have mentioned A Writer's Edge. Answers.com has links to the rest of the winners who probably wrote much more understandable entries.

Contest for Creative Writing

The lovely people who provide answers at Answers.com are having a "creative writing" contest in which you have to use all the words below in a piece of 750 words or less:

• a lick and a promise
• ataraxia
  
• contraband
  
• halva
• mantic
  
• praxis
  
• sapid
  
• semilunar
  
• serendipity
  
• zeitgeist

I thought I'd give it a lick and a promise, seeing as how my ataraxia has abated due to contraband semilunal sapid halva received from a mantic admirer whose serendipity fits the zeitgeist.

Hurry! The deadline is December 21, 2007.

Blogs for Writers Contest Nears End

The end is coming! Only three days left to nominate A Writer's Edge as a Top Ten Blogs for Writers over at Michael Stelzner's Writing White Papers. Just hit the preceding link and leave a comment as Michael asks.

Here's the selection process:

1. Initial qualification: A site must have been nominated multiple times by multiple individuals (and be a blog). If someone nominated more than one blog, only the first nomination was counted.

2. Final winner selection:

* Quality of posts: A qualitative analysis of the content of posts will be examined. Educational and discussion-spurring posts are more valuable than self-promotional posts. (55% of decision)

* Frequency of posts: Blogs that write multiple posts per week will score higher. This is a sign of the blog’s commitment to blogging. (15%)

* Reader involvement: Blogs that have regular comments from readers are another sign of a healthy blog. In addition, the numbers of nominations for a specific blog play a part in this. (15%)

* Technorati.com Ranking: The number of other blogs that link to the blog shows the value of the content. (15%)

Top Writer Blogs 2008 Contest Entries

It's time to begin campaigning for the popularity/beauty contests of the Blogdom. What? Before Thanksgiving? Why not--stores began their Christmas sales during Halloween! Presidential candidates for 2008 began much earlier this year. Thus in grand tradition, we solicit your support in the following pageants:

Michael Stelzner of Writing White Papers is gathering up his second annual batch of blogs to be designated Top 10 Blogs for Writers, so A Writer's Edge is Seeking Your Nomination. Only your first one counts, but feel free to chime in if you want to see A Writer's Edge on this list.

It's probably not too soon to start on Writer's Digest if you think A Writer's Edge is truly useful. To nominate it, send an email to Writer's Digest 101 Best Websites for 2008 . Just add this website's name, A Writer's Edge and URL (www.writers-edge.info) in the body of the message.

Short Short Story Competition

Some think the short story form of fiction is more difficult to write than a novel. It certainly takes tighter writing to pack in the same elements needed for a book length production. Contests for novels abound, but markets and contests for shorts are limited. Here's an annual one that's legit and not too expensive to enter: WritersDigest.com Short Short Story Competition.

Amazon's POD CreateSpace

As if one publish on demand service wasn't enough, last August Amazon.com began CreateSpace, which seems to be more for audio and video projects than the paperback book publishing they advertise. Apparently the only way to easily discover costs and benefits is to register and begin a project, although a FAQ exists specifically about books, and you might glean some insight from a pricing page. I love the example they use--a 100 B&W book priced at $25 "would earn a royalty of $14.85 per sale." Whee! Oh, wait--who would pay $25 for a 100-page trade paperback?

Currently free CreateSpace services are dangling before writers entering the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest:

the winning author will receive a publishing contract from Penguin Group, including promotional support for their book on Amazon.com, and a media suite from Hewlett-Packard. All entrants are eligible to self-publish their novel with CreateSpace and sell it on Amazon.com. Enter your manuscript for consideration by November 5, 2007!

An overview on the book service is available.

Bulwer-Lytton 2007 Results

Every year a contest for the best worst opening lines (like: It was a dark and stormy night) yields great reading and lots of yucks. This year is no different. Watch for the annual Bulwer-Lytton 2007 Results from the San Jose State University. Most entries are submitted electronically through the contest website: http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/. There is also a collection of previous winners being published in August by The Friday Project. It will be available through Amazon.com.uk.

Top Books

The USA Today folks have pulled together their list of 25 Books that leave a legacy. It's part of their 25th anniversary celebration with room for you to make an impact: a poll on which of their top five selections should be number one. What if you think another book--one that isn't Harry Potter, The Deep End of the Ocean, The Da Vinci Code, The 9/11 Commission Report (that's a book?), or Chicken Soup for the Soul--should be first? Well, then you can vote for "none of the above" but no write-ins allowed. No indication is given as to the criteria used by the USA Today editors and critics who chose the top 25. Frankly, some make me gag. The notion that The Da Vinci Code represents the best writing our country can offer is offensive, or that What to Expect When You're Expecting ranks in the same class with A Brief History of Time is ludicrous! Nonetheless, there they are. Take a look and vote for none of the above. Send them a message. Or send me a message if you disagree. Last time I looked The Bible was still the top best-seller.

Dog Stories Wanted

Yes, I do seem to have dogs on the brain this week. Is it any wonder? Naturally I was susceptible to a pitch from David Leonhardt who wrote:

Hi Georganna. I was wondering if any of your readers might be interested in writing real-life stories about their dogs. If so, they might be interested in contributing to an anthology we are organizing, for $100 and a byline: http://www.seo-writer.com/books/dog-stories.html Cheers. David.

The submissions are for an anthology that Happy Guy Marketing is preparing, deadline is June 30, 2007. I suggest you read the guidelines carefully (including the fine print and any contract offered) and follow them exactly. Hint: to get an idea of the kind of story they want, visit the Amazon.com page referenced and use the "Inside the book" feature to read a sample story.

Magazine Awards

Each year the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) gives out awards for the best productions of the previous year. They're called the "Ellies". As usual, many categories had many winners. For magazines, they are separated by size of circulation, although I don't see what that has to do with editorial excellence.

According mediabistro.com:

New York magazine, which was nominated for seven awards and took home five, including general excellence for magazines with circulations of 250,000 to 500,000, and interactive feature, a new category, for nymag.com ... The other general-excellence winners were National Geographic, Rolling Stone, Wired and Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Have you ever even seen a copy of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists? *shrugs* Anyway, you can find the entire list of winners in all categories and sizes with links to the magazines and particular winning features in many cases.

Awards for Digital Writing

Earlier this year the Magazine Publishers of America (MPA) gave out its first awards for digital productions by industry members. You can see lists of winners (with links) in an MPA Press Release. What I'd really like to see is a list of all entries. It looks like everybody and his dog won a prize with categories including Web-Only Tool, Online Community, Mobile Strategy (?), Podcast, Video, Blog and five kinds of Websites. Digital Awards.